1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fluid temperature control device, and more particularly to a structure of a fluid temperature control device which is suitably applied to temperature control of a processing liquid in a semiconductor device manufacturing process.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, the semiconductor device manufacturing field adopts a fluid temperature control device which uses a thermoelectric module to heat/cool the processing liquid or a fluid temperature control device which uses a heater to heat the processing liquid for temperature control of the processing liquid in various manufacturing processes.
For a case where a temperature of the processing liquid is controlled in a wide range or where the processing liquid is required to be heated quickly, there is provided a fluid temperature control device which is comprised of the above-described thermoelectric module and heater in combination (Japanese Patent application Laid-open No. 2006-269617, for example).
FIG. 4 shows a substrate processing system which performs processes such as cleaning, etching and the like of a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer, a glass substrate or the like by immersing in a processing liquid, and this substrate processing system A has a processing tank T which accumulates the processing liquid and a piping S which connects an outer tank To and an inner tank Ti of the processing tank T. The piping S is provided with a pump P which circulates the processing liquid discharged from the outer tank To to the inner tank Ti, a fluid temperature control device B and a filter F.
The fluid temperature control device B is comprised of an electronic cooling/heating unit U using a thermoelectric module and a heater H which are connected in series. A processing liquid (temperature-controlled fluid) L, which is sent from the outer tank To of the processing tank T to the fluid temperature control device B by the operation of the pump P as indicated by arrows a, b, c, is heated/cooled by the electronic cooling/heating unit U, then sent to the heater H as indicated by an arrow d and heated therein. The processing liquid L which is adjusted to a desired temperature by the operations of the electronic cooling/heating unit U and the heater H is circulated from the fluid temperature control device B to the inner tank Ti of the processing tank T through the filter F.
The fluid temperature control device B of the above-described substrate processing system A is configured of the electronic cooling/heating unit U and the heater H which are independently disposed from each other and mutually connected through the pipe. Therefore, it is hard to adjust the temperature of the processing liquid (liquid temperature-controlled fluid) quickly and precisely, and an installation space is increased because an overall size becomes large, resulting in a problem of increasing the size of the substrate processing system A.
Under the circumstances described above, the present invention provides a fluid temperature control device which can adjust a temperature of a temperature-controlled fluid quickly and precisely and which can also be made as small as possible.